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I just got my RS2 up and configured somewhat and seeing how there are other discussions on other threads about setup, I figured it would be good to have one place to talk about how we are all configuring our new projectors.

So here we go:

I upgraded from a Dilard'ized G11/Panamorph/9ft wide Firehawk to the RS2/Panamorph UH380 w/M380 transport/10ft wide 2.40 SMX AT screen.

The only thing I've done so far is set the focus and made one red pixel adjustment. Pixel perfect now. Wow, what a great image!

Here's the first thing I noticed on setup. The image zoom, now automatic vs. manual on the RS1, zooms from the center outwards in all directions. In all directions equally; unless that is, you have the pj mounted higher than the center of the screen. Then it zooms differently on the top vs. the bottom because the image is being thrown on a downward angle. This should not be an issue if you plan on setting up your image to the top of the screen initially and thereafter use the V-Stretch mode/anamorphic lens combo to do widescreen material.

My setup:

Projector is 100" off the floor, center of lens.

Top of screen is 87" off the floor.

Projector is 18 ft back from screen.

Panamorph lens/sled mounted in front of the projector with the included support plate. It is a little tedious to mount the Panamorph system but well worth it. IMO, you must use the chain supports for this setup for proper weight load balance. See picture below. EDIT: All motorized Panamorph systems now come with a thicker mounting plate so the support chains are no longer needed. Nice.

Having everything as perfectly level as possible results in almost perfect image geometry with the lens in the light path.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

With this combo of distances, this is about the max you can go with the pj being higher than the top of screen. There is almost no more adjustment with the manual lens shift downward. You can give the the pj a little downward tilt in front, but you will lose perfect image geometry.

Starting from a full zoom in position and moving to a full zoom out position, the image moved UP 13" on the top and DOWN 54" on the bottom because of the downward light path.

The saving grace, and thank you Shawn Kelly from Panamorph for helping me get this straight, is that when using the Pannie setup I should rarely, if ever, have to adjust lens shift or zoom. With the new 'V-Stretch' scaling in the RS2, enabling that and having the lens motor'ifically slide into place to expand the image to the full 2.40 screen width, that keeps the image full screen at least top to bottom. Wow, that Shawn didn't cut no corners with his latest entry. When you take that stuff out of the box, you really feel like you got your monies worth. I've always been a huge supporter the the anamorphic lenses. Well done Shawn.

EDIT: 02-09-08

With 40 hours on the RS2, I finally had time to set levels with a test disc.

I used the Avia dvd first thru an Oppo970 upconverting player set to 720p and then a Toshiba A30. All measurements directly from the DVD players to the RS2. All settings in the dvd players at default.

First the Toshiba using HDMI, upscaled:

Gamma at 'normal', color temp 'middle'.

Contrast -1

Brightness -1

Color 0

Sharpness 0

Tint 0, tint is not adjustable on the RS2, I'm assuming because of the now individually adjustable RGB colors.

With Gamma at Theater 1, color temp 'middle'.

Nice to see there was little need for adjustments vs. the factory 'normal'.

Contrast -0

Brightness -2

Color 0

Oppo player using HDMI, upscaled to 720p:

Gamma normal

Contrast 5

Brightness 0

Color -2

Gamma Theater 1

Contrast 5

Brightness -1

Color -2

EDIT: Feb. '09. 250 hrs. on the bulb

Settings using DVE BR disc thru a PS3, HDMI direct to the RS2:

Gamma 2.4 with the 5 point bump up at 5% IRE, color temp middle

Contrast -3

Brightness 1

Color -3

The resulting image is outstanding. Contrast and image depth is fantastic. Color levels seem to be a little strong, maybe too much for some, but to me with a couple ticks less saturation, they look great. There is a lot of user adjustability in the menus. Very nice!

This is one fine projector. I can't imagine anyone not being extremely satisfied with it.

Edit 4-19-11

At 638 hrs. on the bulb I had Jeff Meier do a full calibration. The results:

I happen to have had the new Panamorph lens, the DC1 in my possession during the cal as well as my regular lens, the UH480. We did a light loss comparison with both in and out of the light path.

Light loss for the DC1 was 0.6% and 1.7% for the 480. Not bad at all. Those numbers were much lower than I expected and definitely not noticable between the two.

That's about it. I haven't had much time to do any serious viewing yet but initially the image looked pretty darn good after the calibration. I'm considering going to a Seymore screen material to replace my SMX material to pick up a little more brightness. I have a sample of it and it's a bit whiter than the SMX material.

Issues:

Lens shake:

Many have experienced a shaking of the image during deep or strong bass passages, myself included. The easy fix is to use the pink foam that came packed around the lens and fit it snugly back in around the lens.

VStretch IR:

There is no 'one touch' IR command for VStretch on the early RS2's. See note below. You will need to go into the menu to engage/disengage VStretch or do an IR macro to do it. I use a macro and it works perfect. The RS2 is very quick in handling IR commands. The only catch is that when you do your macro, you must include commands that back you all the way out of the menu to the start. Otherwise, you will not be in the starting position of the menu the next time you engage/disengage VStretch.

I will try to compile pics and links from the pages of this thread as pertinent info comes up:

For those interested in a true widescreen experience using all the RS2 has to offer, an anamorphic lens is a must have. Check out the Panamorph system. I have it and it rocks! Click on the screen to watch the video.

It screws straight into the front lens using the existing thread. There is no light reflection that Greg Rogers tells you to watch out for. It works bloody well." Thanks to Badas for that one. Do a Google search for many results.

And thank you to Badas for this one:

"A couple of weeks ago we were having a big discussion on ND Filters. I have always used them on my projectors. It takes away that raw digital effect. I had discussed using a 0.3 ND filter instead of a 0.6 ND as the lamp loses power. My Lamp is at 1280 hours and the light output was getting a lot lower.

I took my advice and got a 0.3 ND filter. I am happy to report that this trick works very well. It has let more light on screen but has retained that analoge look that ND filters produce. So when I have a new lamp I will use a 0.6 ND filter. When the lamp Dims (about 1000 hours) I will use the 0.3 ND Filter. If you are using a 0.6ND and find your lamp dimming try a 0.3ND.

I got mine from Amazon: Tiffen 0.3ND 82mm."

If you are considering the ND filter, make sure you check out Badas' comments on page 111 regarding filters and zoom range.

Quote from Matt Natale:

"Good News and Bad news.

Your RS2's main version must be 229 for these commands to work. There is no way to upgrade.

Here's the first thing I notice that had me scratching my head. The image zoom, now automatic vs. manual on the RS1, zooms from the center outwards in all directions. In all directions equally; unless that is, you have the pj mounted higher than the center of the screen. Then it zooms differently on the top vs. the bottom.

This changes because, I assume, in mounting the projector up high you are forced to employ the lens shift, hence the zoom changes characteristics.

Maybe it's because it's getting late, but I'm not sure why that is so. It's no doubt obvious but I'm missing it right now...

If what you are saying is true, I am probably hosed. It looks like tomorrow night, I will be making some measurements. I need to up the priority of this because from my initial test, things were going to work fine. I guess the lens offset is going to kill me. If that is the case, I'm not sure what my plan B is going to be. If only the Radiance was HDMI 1.3 out of the box (for audio purposes).

This changes because, I assume, in mounting the projector up high you are forced to employ the lens shift, hence the zoom changes characteristics.

Maybe it's because it's getting late, but I'm not sure why that is so. It's no doubt obvious but I'm missing it right now...

BTW, how do you find the image sharpness on the projector?

Yes, when you shift the image down, the axis of the beam is now on a downward angle from the RS2 compared to the vertical screen. If the screen were tilted to be at a pure right angle to the beam, the zoom would be even on top and bottom. Nobody would do that of course, but I'm thinking that's the way it works. I need to take my pj down for the Panamorph mounting so I'll try to set the pj on my pony wall that is pretty close to center of screen and take more measurements.

Making a comment on the sharpness may be a moot point because I don't anything but my G11 to compare to and I've seen very few top end projectors in the last few years. Having said that, I've watched little bits of this and that, Fifth Element non HD, SW Attack of the Clones, MNF and some others stuff in HD. To me the sharpness is excellent.

Cameron, are you not planning on using an anamorphic lens? I'm not sure how your setup is going to be, but there is always the manual adjustments for up and down. For the most part, you would only have to adjust when going from a 16:9 image to a 2.35 image, right? All 4:3, 16:9 would stay at the top. 1.85 would be pretty close as well.

Well I hung the projector up and did some testing. The offset definitely dramatically changed the zoom. Switching from a 51" tall 16:9 image zoomed out to a 120" wide scope, the image was off 7". So that puts me back to the drawing board a bit.

On my G11, vertical/horizontal image shift is done thru the menu/remote. The shift on the RS2 is now done mechanically via the knobs with physical lens movement, right?. There is still, however, a v/h shift available in the menu system of the RS2, but the range of vertical(up/down) is quite small now compared to the G11. Horizontal shift doesn't really come into play because once you get your image centered, you really don't have a need to adjust it again.

The difference between the two ways, RS2 knobs vs. G11 menu, of shifting the image is that in using the knobs on the RS, the image shifts as a whole image up/down. The RS2 lens actually moves, as you know. On the G11, the image shifts up/down 'inside' the projected 4:3 panel you see on the screen and the lens doesn't move. Example, when I shift the image up on the G11, I will eventually lose the upper part of the image because it is moving outside the range of the panel. Same with down, left and right.

But, the only time I would use that, and I did it often, is in going from one ratio to another. A 4:3 image is at the top of the screen, right? When I put on a 2.35 movie, the image is centered in the screen. Black bars on top and bottom. I would simply 'shift' the image up to the top and zoom out to fill my 2.35 screen. That simple. Even simpler, because I had Dilard, an automation program designed for the G series projectors, do it with one push of a button on my Pronto.

The bottom line for me is I would have a hard time getting up to lens shift my RS2 every time I change ratios. I wish they would have put more range into a software image shift.

With the Panamorph lens and motorized transport though, I shouldn't have to do much of that. The RS2 V-Stretch will take a 2.35 image and fill it to the top of the screen and the Pannie will stretch the image out to the sides. I'm still setting up but so far, so good.

What settings is everyone using? I have a PS3 and Tosh A30 HD-DVD player and I'm not sure if I should be selecting enhanced black or standard on the RS2 or source devices. The black level doesn't seem as good as the local RS1 demo that I saw.

What settings is everyone using? I have a PS3 and Tosh A30 HD-DVD player and I'm not sure if I should be selecting enhanced black or standard on the RS2 or source devices. The black level doesn't seem as good as the local RS1 demo that I saw.

So do I understand correctly the storyline: You were, like me, going to be using the "zoom" method for changing image size (ala CIH)? But lens off-set issue when mounting the projector on the ceiling has forced you to bite the bullet and buy an anamorphic lens.

Those that have your projector setup what is your brightness and contrast settings? I set mine using DVE and ended up with a brightness of -1 and a contrast of -3. The problem is the black level is not all that great. I can easily see a 0 IRE screen and black space scenes do not look all that black. This wasn't the case with the local RS1 demo I viewed. I'm stumped because the RS2 should have twice the contrast and roughly half the black level of the RS1. I also have misconvergence issues on the right 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of the screen. The red is off by 1 line on the DVE convergence pattern and easily seen from 12' back.

That is exactly it. It helped to find the Panamorph with motorized sled for less than $2500.00. I did have a pretty cool implementation designed for raising and lowering the screen, I could have kept the cost on that under $500.00, but it woul have been a pain to implement.

I happen to have a 9' wide 16:9 Grayhawk, but it would have cost me $3500+ to go that route (replace with AT higher gain material) and then I wouldn't have a 10' widescreen scope screen.

I contemplated changing my center channel speaker to a horizontal mount (it is 3' wide by 8.75' high) and going with the full blown carada solution with the masking addon. That would have been pretty cool, but it was causing speaker placement problems with my subs etc. The sound is very important to me too.

So I'll stick with the 10' scope and deal with minor Anamorphic lens issues. I'm pretty sure I will be happy with this implementation. I will probably add a lumagen VP sometime next year too.

Those that have your projector setup what is your brightness and contrast settings? I set mine using DVE and ended up with a brightness of -1 and a contrast of -3. The problem is the black level is not all that great. I can easily see a 0 IRE screen and black space scenes do not look all that black. This wasn't the case with the local RS1 demo I viewed. I'm stumped because the RS2 should have twice the contrast and roughly half the black level of the RS1. I also have misconvergence issues on the right 1/3 and bottom 1/3 of the screen. The red is off by 1 line on the DVE convergence pattern and easily seen from 12' back.

Something sounds wrong. Out of the box, my RS2 is clearly the "blackest" digital that I have seen. Is the black level looking bad on all sources?

The MC sounds pretty bad too. I think somebody else had their projector replaced for that very issue.

Now that I have heard two people with this problem, I think I need to use DVE to check my total convergence also.

With my panamorph lens, and my very short throw 1.4-1.5x, I have insignificant distortion and very uniformed CA on the outer vertical lines of my screen.

Thats nice that you found the motorized sled Panamorph at that price .. via Optoma. Thankfully my 15S1 has the squeeze that makes my fixed placement a non-hassle, but it would have been nicer to have the sled option to get un-processed 16:9.

I still plan to use the zoom method. As I've mentioned with the projector in a cabinet behind the viewing sofa and employing a TV lift, I'll be able to have the projector pretty much centered with the screen. So, hopefully it will work out.
This HT project is already getting expensive so I have to cut corners somewhere. At least starting out with the zoom method is one way of keeping costs down. I was also going to get a Lumagen VP along with the projector, but
will most likely start with just the projector and see how it goes.

I don't think you are cutting corners with your lift/zoom implementation. Having done the zoom with the projector centered. I was very happy with everything. I will probably get a bit of CA and distortion as my current throw is about 1.8ish.

Catdaddy,
I think there was somebody that was selling the motorized sled in the classifieds. I could be wrong, but it might be a good deal for you.

Will you be using the attachment plate? It makes the RS2, lens and motorized sled an 'all in one' affair. It's a great method, but for me I think it's too heavy for the space on my ceiling where I can mount the assembly.

Yeah I need to pick one of those up from AVS. How much does the plate weigh? I am having a few technical concerns with my mount so far. I had contractors make a cross joist that didn't connect with the upper ceiling. It doesn't have as much strength as I would like. It was fine for the RS2 by itself, but I will have to see with all of the added Panamorph weight. It will probably be OK, but I am not 100% sure. I will be able to tell when everything arrives, but until then, it does worry me.

Yeah. Well I hope it works out for you. One thing I noticed is that the RPM mount that I have is not exactly balanced with the projector. This is a good thing for adding the extra weight of the panamorph. At least it will somewhat balance out the extra weight. I am really curious to see how it actually pans out.

Well, my idea of mounting the lens/sled to the soffit board just won't work so I am back to the recommended installation of mounting the assy. to the attachment plate. It really is, in the long run, the better, more secure way to go. I will post some pics when I get it mounted.